British Ebola aid ship RFA Argus arrives in Sierra Leone

A UK ship has arrived in Sierra Leone to help deal with the deadly Ebola outbreak in the West African country.

Royal Fleet Auxiliary Argus is carrying food, medical equipment and 32 pick-up trucks, to help keep hard-pressed Ebola treatment centres going.
Doctors, nurses and military personnel are also on board. The ship has docked in the capital, Freetown. Ebola has killed nearly 5,000 people and infected more than 10,000 in West Africa since March.
 
RFA Argus set sail from Falmouth in Cornwall on 17 October and is also carrying three Royal Navy Merlin helicopters. The BBC's Africa correspondent Andrew Harding said it would act as an offshore base for the aid effort, and described it as an "important moment".
He said there was now the "beginnings of hope" in Freetown that the giant international aid effort was beginning to get under way.

The Ship brought;

• 100 hospital beds
  
• 3 Merlin helicopters
  
• 350 crew, including:
  
• 83 medics and
  
• 80 Royal Marines
  

At 28,000 tonnes, the ship is one of the Royal Navy's larger support vessels, but despite having its own onboard hospital, it will not be used to directly treat anyone who has come into contact with the virus. 

If any of the crew or the Royal Marines on board become infected they would be kept in isolation, and then taken to one of the clinics on the ground.